Dark spots on the lunar disc are dirt, blood, paint, traces of beating, burning, scratching, etc. on the Moon person's body or face (Kiliwa: spots on the Sun) and do not form any particular figure
Raven or other carrion-eating bird of dark color and a similar size was originally white
Fire is stolen from its original owner or brought back to the people from somebody who had stolen it before
Dog obtains fire, daylight or the Sun or steals them
First people or inhabitants of a distant country cook food in the sun; or fire owner lies that he or she cooks food in the sun
Person observes traces of some activity that takes place in his (rare: her) house in his (her) absence and then takes by surprise the responsible one
Man takes or attempts to take a wife who is connected with the underwater world (fish, crab, snake, water animal and the like)
Person hides in a tree. Somebody tries to fell it but the notch disappears and the tree becomes intact
People are mortal because stone thrown into the water sank. They have missed a chance to be like wood or other organic matter that floated
Race of dwarfs lives under the ground (deep under the earth or in hills and rocks) or at the horizon where the earth and the sky meet
People who live in the underworld, at the sunrise or sunset (often dwarfs) are scorched by the Sun which moves by at a short distance from them. They are red-haired, dark-skinned, etc.
Some beings are half-men and half-dogs (usually anthropomorphic with heads of dogs)
Dogs or dog-headed men are husbands of human women
Rainbow is a reptile (usually a snake) or (more rare) a fish, or it is related to snake, to its tongue, breath, or to scorpion's tail
The Pleiades are a brooding hen, hen with its chickens, chickens
The Pleiades are only one anthropomorphic being, not several persons
Person gets into the belly of ground animal or bird. He kills it from the inside and/or returns to earth by himself (i.e. not extracted by other people)
A young woman is transformed into an animal, pushed into the water, into the underworld or she herself has to plunge into water (acquire animal form). Her connection with the human world is not completely lost, however, and usually she is helped to return to the people
One of (step)sisters, co-spouses or young female neighbors meets a being that is able to reward and to punish. She behaves herself properly and is rewarded. Another (other) girl comes to the same being but behaves in a wrong way and is punished (not rewarded).
Person is bewitched (transformed into a bird, faints) when a pin or other sharp object is stuck into her (rare his) body
Because of the female antagonist, a girl faints and is taken for dead but her body is not decomposed. A valuable marriage partner breaks the charms, she revives
An ogre or a stronger animal catches a man or a weaker animal or drives him into a small enclosure and goes away for a time leaving a watchman. The hero dupes the watchman, escapes. (Most, though hardly all American cases can have post-Columbian African origin)
The antagonists acquire person’s organ or body part (his remains) . Another person gets back what has been stolen and the first one revives (becomes strong again)
Cunning fox, jackal or coyote saves particular person or many people, helps them
Person can transform himself or herself into an animal or an object. Being sold in this guise, he or she achieves his or her aims and becomes a human again
In search of a lost object, usually carried away by water or wind, a girl or (rare) a boy comes to a powerful person, gets the object back and/or is rewarded. The object is related to the everyday life, it has no ritual significance and is not a weapon
An (animal) person gives a signal (special song, etc.) to his relative or friend who lets him or her in. Antagonist imitates the person's voice or guise and the relative lets him in
A girl (rejects suitors for a long time but at last) falls in love with a handsome man who proves to be a demon or animal. Usually she eventually escapes from him
A group of young people comes to a demon. The youngest brother of sister or a person whom others take for a sick, unpleasant, invalid one and who often accompanies the others against their wish saves them all
A member (usually the youngest) of a group of boys or girls gets with them to a cannibal. The cannibal plans to kill people when they fall asleep. The youngest boy or girl every time answers the cannibal why he or she is still awake and forces him or her to be engaged into different activities instead of killing the sleeping people. Brothers (sisters) run away and return home
Person pursued by an enemy asks somebody whom he meets to help him. The helper hides him
Person or creature pretends to be afraid of a particular sort of treatment that really cannot do him any harm
To take part in a feast or to visit God or celestial object, person ascends to the sky. To return, he either uses a rope but falls before reaching ground or jumps (falls) down from the sky and is badly hurt, dead, and/or transformed
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is fox, jackal or coyote
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is hare or rabbit
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the hyena suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
Person or creature who has no wings or is unable to fly on a long distance attempts to ascend to the sky or to fly far away but falls down or, deprived of his wings, remains in a place from which he is unable to return
Person sees how others act using magic or according to their animal nature. He or she imitates their actions and gets into trouble. Actions are not heroic deeds, competitions or tests and refer to everyday activity, mostly to providing and cooking food
Person loses his eyes because of his playfulness or negligence. He makes new eyes of some substance or/and takes eyes of another person
Person conceals his or her close relatives (children, mother, brothers) and tells another that he or she has killed them. Another believes and agrees to kill his or her own children, mother, etc.
Person conceals his mother or (rare) wife or mother-in-law, tells another that he has killed or sold her, another really kills or sells his mother (wife, mother-in-law)
Animal person puts his tail (penis) down and waits in hope to get something edible. The tail (penis) is torn or cut off, the person escapes or dies
Person buries a tail or head of a bull or other domestic animal with a tail or horns outside. He explains that the animal sank into the ground and usually asks the others to pull the tail (horns). When they are “torn off”, he tells that people are guilty of the animal being lost
After losing his tail (ear) an (animal) person tries to trick other animals of his species or other people of his group to lose their tails (ears) too
Father or mother is going to give primogeniture to the son he or she has chosen. Another son comes in disguise of the chosen one, receives primogeniture
An (animal) person saves a dangerous animal from a snare or the like. The saved one is going to kill his savior but the third person saves the second (usually tricks the first one to captivity again)
During the night a strong predator (a tiger, a lion, etc.) and a thief not knowing about each other get into stable to steal a domestic animal. The thief takes the predator for domestic animal or for a person and acts accordingly
To demonstrate that a strong animal is his slave or his riding animal, a weak animal tricks the strong one to carry him. People believe that the strong one is really a slave of the weak one
Person believes that unachievable natural phenomena are objects of culture. Usually he agrees to bring a the fire mistaking for it a sunset, a firefly, etc.
In most of the episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is hare or rabbit. Not considered are traditions in which 1) trickster hare/rabbit is rare while other trickster (usually fox/jackal/coyote) typical; 2) Mesoamerican traditions in which episodes with trickster rabbit are not many and could be borrowed in post-Columbian time being of African origin
A fugitive turns in succession into different animals or objects. A pursuer does the same, every time becoming an animal or a person who is dangerous for the fugitive in his given guise
Being on a visit to other people or (more often) animals, an (animal)-person sees them act using magic or according to their animal nature. Back at home, he imitates their actions and gets in trouble. Actions are not heroic deeds, competitions or tests and mostly refer to providing and cooking food
A group of young men live apart. A girl comes to them or is born magically. The men keep her as their sister. After some time she is separated from them and is in danger but ultimately she is rescued
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the lion suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
To hide truth, person buries an animal or an object and tells that it is the burial of a bride (wife, sister, children, etc.) of another
To overcome a monster, the youth (twin boys) prepares spears and puts them all along the path from the monster’s den to his place. When the monster pursues him, the youth throws his spears one after another and ultimately kills the monster
Initially women and men live apart from each other. Later they meet each other and become to live together
There are (or were) women who live apart from men in their own village or villages
Game animals were concentrated in one single place. Certain person lets them disperse in the world
The lightning (and thunder) is (produced with) an object (axe, sword, mirror, belt, stones, skin, etc.) in hands of anthropomorphic being
People (elder brothers, elder siblings, elder sister) disappear (one by one). A lonely woman has a baby or finds a baby or she becomes pregnant magically and gives birth to a boy or twins. The boy grows up, exterminates the antagonists, usually revives and releases those who had disappeared
A boy is born whose father or (rare) mother is unknown. He himself points at his parent who as a rule occupies the lowest social position. Usually many men (women) come together and everyone hopes that the boy points at him (her)
A powerful person coverts a beautiful bride or wife of a man and gives him impossible tasks to get rid of him
A girl (usually the youngest of several sisters) does not reject but marries a poor, sick, dirty, old, too young, non-human, etc. man who later demonstrates his supernatural qualities
A man is going to marry his sister (often puts certain condition on his future marriage, only his sister complies with them). The girl gets to escape
A demonic being swallows a multitude of people and animals. When it is killed and cut open, the swallowed ones come out alive or are revived
Person does not want to share his meal with his close relatives and pretending to have many guests, eats food alone
Person or animal gets into another being through its anus
The (animal) person threatens another to beat him and sticks to him with all his limbs in succession. Usually it is a figure smeared with some sticky substance that the person takes for somebody alive
Persons climbs a tree and thanks to this escapes from a demon (who usually tries to fell the tree)
Person asks the smith to make his voice thin
A group of girls forms a community or an armed contingent and acts independently from the men
A man discovers that a beautiful girl hides herself under a guise of an ugly and dirty servant, under a skin of an animal or in an object that is brought into his house
A woman conceals from God part of her children (rare: all of them) or part of domestic animals that are under her care. The concealed children become poor people or non-human beings and the concealed domestic animals become wild
A woman gives birth to many children but conceals part of them from God. The concealed children become ancestors of the people of the lower social status while those that had been shown to God become ancestors of the high status people
A demon helps a man or a woman or lets him or her free. As a reward, the person is forced to promise to give the demon his child
Two animal persons are invited to a feast. Both along the way and at the place of destination one deceives another
Being smart and persistent, the turtle (toad, frog) overcomes strong adversaries
Person does not know that he or she eats or cooks the meat of the member of his or her household (blood relation, more rare a spouse or servant) or serves it to his or her friends, or uses her or his bones for everyday needs, or slowly kills him ort her
The denizens of the country at the horizon (where the sky and the earth meet) are dwarfs
Person gets hold of another. Trying to free himself, the latter turns into different materials, elements, animals or (Urarina and Setebo) orders different dangerous creature to attack the person
Being seized by a person, a female person turns into different materials, elements or animals (Urarina and Setebo: sends different dangerous creature to attack the one who caught her)
The Sun and the Moon are or were enemies, either permanently or in particular situations
People (elder brothers, elder siblings, elder sister) disappear (one by one). A lonely woman has a baby or finds a baby or she becomes pregnant magically and gives birth to a boy. The boy grows up, exterminates the antagonists, usually revives and releases those who had disappeared